The Seneca football team sandwiched a touchdown run in between a pair of losses on downs in the opening quarter of Friday’s game at Sprague Field in Clinton.

The Maroons then marched on a 13-play drive from their own 10 to the Fighting Irish 3.

However, Seneca’s defense came up with a huge stop on fourth down, and then three plays later senior running back Cam Shriey broke off a 92-yard TD run to give the visitors the momentum for good.

Seneca extended a four-score lead at halftime to an impressive 50-0 victory to improve to 3-0 on the season.

Clinton dropped to 0-3.

“Sometimes it takes our offense a drive to get going because we are going to take what the defense give us,” Seneca coach Terry Maxwell said. “It’s kind of like boxers trading punches and we want to see how the defense is playing certain situations. Clinton was trying to take away the trap play so we had to adjust and go with other options.”

Seneca led 8-0 after one quarter on a 20-yard scoring dash and then 2-point conversion run by Shriey.

Then after the defensive stop and Shriey’s big run, the Irish forced a punt and loss on downs while converting on a 25-yard TD run by QB Gunner Varland and an 8-yard scamper from Ethan Othon as time ran out in the first half to lead 28-0.

“That defensive stop and then the huge run a couple plays later really switched the momentum to our side and we were able to build on it from there,” Maxwell said.

“(Clinton) was running a lot of offensive stuff we hadn’t seen on film, and we had to adjust,” Seneca senior OL/DL Landen Venecia said. “They had shown a lot of run-heavy, wing-T in their first two games and then tonight they were throwing quick passes. That drive was frustrating, but we were able to get the stop when we needed it.

“When a team gets down inside the 10, you just have to be as physical as you can, and we did that on that drive.”

Seneca began the second half with an interception by Othon that eventually turned into a 14-yard TD run by Brayden Simek. The Irish then recovered the ensuing kickoff and four plays later Shriey took in in from the 2 to make it 43-0 and start the running clock.

Seneca closed out the scoring with a 1-yard plunge by Devon Daemicke.

Seneca finished with 419 yards on the ground on 46 tries, led by Shriey’s 199 on 11. Varland posted 63 ground yards and Othon 33. Cooper Hamilton was 2 of 2 in PAT kicks.

On defense, the Irish allowed 67 yards on the ground and 55 through the air. Venecia, Wyatt Biffany and Landyn Ramsey each recorded a sack in the triumph, while Wyatt Holman recovered a fumble.

“We struggled a little on offense to start the game, but some of the struggle was helping us understand what was going to work down the line,” Seneca senior TE/DE Zebadiah Maxwell said. “I feel like once we understood how they were trying to stop us, we we’re able to adjust well and got things going.”

Seneca hits the road again next week at Genoa-Kingston.